Morning Buzz: Kramer continues baffling wait

Former Green Bay Packers coach Vince Lombardi is carried off the field on Jan. 14, 1968, after his team defeated the Oakland Raiders 33-14 in Super Bowl II in Miami. Former Packers great Jerry Kramer is at right.(Photo: Green Bay Press-Gazette)

Welcome to your Morning Buzz, rounding up news and views regarding the Green Bay Packers and the NFL from around the web and here at PackersNews.com. Grab a strong cup of coffee and get caught up on everything you need to know about the Packers.

Once, Marcol was a celebrated kicker for the Green Bay Packers. The NFL rookie of the year in 1972, he twice led the league in scoring and twice was all-pro. His improbable game-winning touchdown in 1980 against the Chicago Bears – off a blocked field goal in overtime – is among the most memorable plays in Packers history.

But when Marcol spoke last week at a fundraising dinner for Samaritans Hand, a faith-based drug and alcohol outpatient clinic, he never once mentioned football. That was all a lifetime ago and is almost irrelevant to what and who he is today, other than serving as a conversation starter.

The popular opinion for why Kramer wasn’t elected is that voters felt that too many members of the 1960s Packers were already in. By 1997 that great Green Bay team had 11 men in Canton, including Lombardi. It’s now up to 12; linebacker Dave Robinson was elected as a Senior candidate in 2013.

Those were the sentiments of voters back then. Twenty years later voters must rely on the previous generation’s opinions. Most of today’s voters feel that senior finalist spots are there to help players whose cases weren’t fully heard during their years of eligibility. That would not include Kramer, whose case was presented nine times before a group that saw the great ’60s Packers often, and then a 10th time in front of a committee with a mix of voters—some who covered him, most of whom didn’t.